Avira is a company best known for its antivirus and security software. In fact, I was at the Avira website downloading some security software when I spotted Avira Android Optimizer. It looked interesting and was free in the Google Play Store.

If you have an Android phone and are signed into a Google account (who isn’t?), the system will back up account settings, app data, contacts, browser bookmarks, calendar, photos and videos. It does not back up text messages, call logs, and a few other things.

Is your Android mobile phone or tablet slow to use? Is it running out of storage space and memory? Are your getting error message or problems with apps crashing? The cause, at least partly, could be due to junk files cluttering up the system. Here is how to find them and delete them.

There is nothing worse than getting a huge bill from your mobile operator because you have used more data than you realised. The charges for using more than your allowance can be very high, but these two data monitors can help you to avoid unwanted costs.

Canva is both an iPad app and an online tool for creating impressive designs. With a few taps you can design a wide range of items and it is a very easy app to use. If you lack the design skills or tools to draw something from scratch, Canva will enable you to create what you need.

Android has many great features, but also a few irritations too and one of these is apps that run in the background. The more apps you install, the more that hide in the background. There they occupy memory and consume processing power and suck the life out of the battery. What can you do?

Android phones can slow down as more apps are installed and one of the reasons for this is that many apps run in the background. The more you add, the more that run, decreasing the phone or tablet memory and reducing the speed. To make matters worse, many apps automatically start when the phone is started. Startup Manager can help.

Estar Battery Saver is a battery monitoring app for Android phones and tablets that has an unusual feature. It rates apps in the Google Play Store according to how much they drain your battery. This enables you to choose those that use the least power to maximise the length of time your device will last on the battery.

Suppose you have a file on your tablet that you want to access on your phone. What if you have taken a photo on your phone and want to edit it on your tablet. How would you send a web link from a phone to a tablet or tablet to a phone? All these activities and more are possible with a free app for Android and iOS called Pushbullet.

The amount of data their mobile phone uses is a constant worry for some people. The problem is that most contracts have a data limit, sometimes as little as 500MB. There are penalties for using too much data, so Onavo Count will tell you exactly how much you have used and the amount remaining.

There are numerous clean up and optimisation apps for Android, and a seemingly never-ending list of battery managers for extending the life of the phone, but where are they for iOS? Why are there so few turn-up apps and battery managers for the iPhone. Does it not need them? Maybe it does.

There are lots of battery managers in the Google Play Store and it is a popular category. Is this because it is easy to write battery-saving apps or because lots of people need them? It is probably a bit of both. Battery Doctor is one example of a battery extender that is very popular, with millions of installs.

Battery life is a constant problem for Android phone users and it just isn’t as good as our iPhone-owning friends. Apple’s battery technology is clearly the best, but a lot of the time, the poor battery life on our Android phone is partly our own fault and it is down to the apps we install. Here’s what you can do.

If you have a website for your company, blog or hobby, how do you know that it is working? One way to test it is to log on and check it with a browser, of course, but you cannot constantly monitor it. It might be working when you test it, but what about in between visits? Here are four apps for the iPhone that monitor your websites.

Battery usage is a constant worry for mobile device users and phones and tablets never last as long as we would like them to. If only we could get another hour of two use out of our devices they would be much more valuable. GSam Battery Monitor for Android phones and tablets might help you do that.

Near the top of most people’s feature wish list for their mobile phone must surely be a longer life battery and better performance. AVG Battery Saver & Tuneup for Android promises both of those and the app is free on the Google Play Store, so it sounds like a must-have app.